Shipping Giant Maersk Taps CBRE To Advise Expansion Into Warehousing

A global freight giant has joined the growing list of companies looking to offer logistics as a service.

Maersk is already one of the biggest providers of freight transport in the world, and now the Denmark-based company is looking to expand its presence in every other part of the supply chain so it can provide "frictionless solutions" for clients, CoStar reports. A central part of that expansion will be in warehousing, for which Maersk has picked CBRE as its global real estate adviser.

Maersk already operates more than 450 warehouses worldwide, but it is seeking acquisition opportunities for distribution centers and cold storage facilities at both port-adjacent and inland locations, CoStar reports. The company will also invest in more land-side transportation and data visibility tools to give itself and its logistics customers more insight and control into the location and movement speed of inventory across its network.

The logistics-as-a-service industry has become more crowded in the past six months as several major retailers, most notably Amazon, look to monetize industrial footprints that are now bloated after pandemic-era expansions proved overzealous.

Prologis, the largest owner of warehouse space in the world, also has a nascent logistics-as-a-service business called Prologis Essentials, but Maersk's initiative stands apart as a proactive foray requiring new real estate investment rather than a cost-saving measure.

Though it did not specify whether it would prioritize ownership or lease deals at the properties it will target, Maersk looks likely to make longer-term investments than American Eagle subsidiary Quiet Platforms, which is seeking percentage-based rent deals for ad-hoc usage of extra space at both warehouses and vacant buildings in other asset classes.